Different photography styles
Louisville Wedding Photographer – L K Photography Inc believes understanding the different kinds photographers will help you make an informed decision.
This will have a major impact on the type of photographs you end up with. There is three major styles of wedding photography and they are:
1.Photojournalism
In pure photojournalism style the photographer does not do any posed shots at all. Instead he/she will capture the moment candidly. This type of shooters will not try to choreograph any situations, but will only take shots of what ever is presented to them. Typically shooters of this kind are masters of story telling. Pure photojournalists may not offer any retouching either. They will shoot and usually give you the photographs with full copy right release.
2.Traditional
In traditional style the photographer choreographs every shot to perfection and all shots are posed shots. This might seem to be a very obstructive influence in the flow of a wedding. Most traditional photographers does not allow any others to take photographs of their posed groups. The reason being that most of this kind of shooters want to get a sizable income from print sales. Almost none of this kind of photographers offer files/negatives.
3.Portrait Journalism
This is a happy medium between the two extrems mentioned above. This kind of photographers take some minimum posed shots. But majority of their shots are the photojournalistic kind. Almost all of the major names in wedding photography work in this model. Some might offer files/negatives with copy right release depending on their sales model.
There are different kinds of photographers too:
There are 8 types of wedding photographers you will encounter. It is a good idea to know the pro’s and con’s of each(at least in style and pricing).
Here’s the list of the 8 types of wedding photographer you’ll encounter, along with my thoughts following:
- Full-Time Professional Wedding Photographer
- Weekend Warrior
- High-End Wedding Photographer
- Shoot and Burner
- Aspiring Amateur
- Profession Photographer (non-wedding)
- Uncle Bob/Aunt Betty
- Old School Photographer
1. Full-Time Professional Wedding Photographer
Description – The full time wedding photographer gets most of his/her revenue from shooting weddings. That is about 75 to 90% of their income. In today economic climate you will find almost all of them doing some other photography work on the side like portrait.
Pro’s of the full-time wedding photographer:
- Experience – A full time professional photographer would do any where from 15 to 40 weddings a year and would be masters of the craft. They would be easily able to adapt to the changing situations of the typical wedding day. Having done this for long they would develop an eye that would be able to anticipate different situations and get the shot.
- “Current” – Photography is going through a world of change. Starting in the early 90′s digital technology began to come out that is still evolving. The vast ISO capabilities and HD video capabilities offered by digital is amazing. Ability to change white balance on the fly in itself is a revolution that digital brought to the industry. The technology is still evolving and full time professionals would be up to date in the technological aspect.
- Consistency – To get amazing pictures consistently takes talent and experience. Both of which a professional photographer would bring to the wedding. Any one with a camera can get lucky once in a while and take amazing pictures. But there is a difference between doing it once and doing it always and it means everything in the fast paced arena of wedding.
- Perspective (the eye) – The eye or the style of photography that the full time professional would bring would be trademark of the kind of photography he practices (if you have read above you will see it could be photojournalism, traditional or portrait journalism). Once you hire some one with a certain style, who have practiced that for years you get consistent output.
- Back-up Equipment – Back up equipments are not a luxury but a necessity. All electronics would fail one day and back up equipments are crucial to cover that eventuality. Mot only back up equipment in the field is needed, but back up equipments in the file handling systems are essential to ensure that your files remain safe.
- People skills – the full-time wedding photographer cheerfully handles requests from guests and clients and communicates effectively with other vendors at the wedding site(s) to ensure the best experience for all subjects. Success at this means a higher rate of word of mouth referrals.
Con’s of the full-time wedding photographer:
- High Number of Weddings – one thing that may be worth watching out for is if the full-timer shoots too many weddings (logic: there are 52 weeks a year, so anything above 40 means the photographer is shooting on most weekends, or more than one per weekend, since there are usually more weddings from May through October than in the wetter, colder months). This may result in burn-out after a period of time.
- Pricing – when first researching photographers, you may receive “sticker shock” when you first see the fees a full-time wedding photographer charges. Oftentimes, they may seem very high, and they might be, compared to the regular, everyday items and services the average person purchases.
2. Weekend Warrior
Description – These are photographers who shoot weddings just during the weekends. They usually have another job during the week and since most weddings happen during weekends this is ok.
Pro’s of the Weekend Warrior
- Experience – Often time this kind of photographer have a lot of weddings under their belt and would give you consistent results.
- Enthusiasm – Since they do not fully depend on the income from weddings to make a living they are able to select the weddings they do and hence bring a good amount of energy. In other words they might not be burned out by doing a large amount of difficult weddings where the clients do not sync with the photographer.
- Pricing – because the income of the weekend warrior comes primarily from his or her full-time (or even part-time) day job, the cost of shooting a wedding can be lowered, and the savings passed on to the wedding clients.
Con’s of the Weekend Warrior
- Post-processing Time – Because they have another commitment during the week the processing takes longer than that from a full time professional. Also the finer details may be overlooked.
- Lack of other services – again, because of the weekend warriors full-time day job, he or she may not offer options such as slide shows or albums as such products require additional production time (and results in more income — again, which the weekend warrior may not need).
3. High-End Wedding Photographer
Description – the high end wedding photographer is akin to a boutique located in an expensive shopping district. He or she may appeal to you if you are expecting an above-average photographic experience: from client telephone/email communication, in-person interview, actual shooting of engagement/wedding/after sessions, post-wedding image post-processing, album image selection and manufacture, and follow-up communication. The price for this kind of photography is high but so is the level of service.
Pro’s of the High-End Wedding Photographer
- Experience – By paying a premium service you get a premium service. You can expect a lot of hand holding from this kind of photographers. The number of weddings they do are usually large enough for them to have a good level of experience in the trade.
- Eye – The kind of brides that book them are looking for the best, resulting in less a hectic pace that allows the photographer time to get great shots. His or her focus may well be in a particular genre such as photojournalism, or artistic shots. The discerning client who selects a high-end wedding photographer knows exactly what she wants.
Con’s of the High-End Wedding Photographer
- Pricing – expect to pay a premium (perhaps $10-20K) for a well-known high-end wedding photographer. It is possible that he or she will be shooting less weddings — in order to provide the high quality service — and so will charge more to generate the same amount of income as any other photographer. (Alternatively, with the higher fees, such a photographer can hire and maintain an in-house production staff)
4. Shoot and Burner
Description – This kind of photographers will shoot a wedding and burn the files on to a disc and mail it to you with minimal retouching. Usually found in craigslist they might be your kind if you are willing to do a lot of the post processing and do not want to spend more than a few hundred.
Pro’s of the Shoot and Burner
- Pricing – because there is little to no post-processing, the pricing for shooting and burning should be considerably lower than that from other photographers.
Con’s of the Shoot and Burner
- Question about Quality – The quality of pictures you get from this kind of photographers are usually very low. Their understanding of technicalities are often less than desirable and it will show in the shots offered. Usually somebody takes this route in the early stage of their getting into business.
5. Aspiring Amateur
Description – the aspiring amateur is at a stage of photography which most wedding photographers go through. The ones that will eventually become successful professional wedding photographers need to know their equipment, develop their eye and people skills, and gain “battle” experience shooting actual weddings, all the while staying enthusiastic and passionate about weddings.
Pro’s of the Aspiring Amateur
- Pricing – the amateur is not a professional for many reasons, with one of them being that he or she is usually not paid (or paid very little) for their services. The amateur’s primary reason for shooting without pay is simply to gain experience.
Con’s of the Aspiring Amateur
- Lack of Experience – The aspiring amateur simply have not developed the skills that a full time professional has. This will show in the pictures produced. The number of situation that he/she will anticipate will be considerably less than a full time professional.
- Lack of Back-up Equipment – Usually they have not got the income to invest in the best of equipment let alone in back ups. This might be a problem if their equipment fails.
6. Professional Photographer(non-wedding)
Description – landscape, product, travel, fashion, commercial, portrait, astronomy, news — there are photographers for all these fields and more, and some of them become celebrities themselves. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean these professionals would shoot weddings well.
Pro’s
- Know Equipment – they will be sufficiently proficient with the equipment they choose to use.
- Is Professional – you can expect a professional photographer to meet deadlines, be clear in communications, etc.
Con’s
- Inexperience – As mentioned a lot earlier, weddings are fast paces event with ever changing situations, the key to being a successful wedding photographer is to anticipate and understand the situation and change accordingly. This takes a lot of experience, and there is no other way around it.
7. Uncle Bob/Aunt Betty
Description – Uncle “Bob” or Aunt “Betty” are not so affectionate terms that wedding photographers may use to describe the enthusiastic family member or friend with a DSLR who basically gets in the shots, or are wanting to duplicate the same shots the wedding photographer is making. In some cases though, clients may elect to go with this family member or friend to shoot their wedding, based on their enthusiasm and/or insistence that shooting their wedding “would be easy — why pay thousands when I can do it for free?”
Pro’s of Uncle Bob/Aunt Betty
- Pricing – free
Con’s of Uncle Bob/Aunt Betty
- Lack of Experience – while perhaps well-meaning, Uncle Bob or Aunt Betty really cannot be expected to be prepared for the ebb and flow of events on a wedding day, as neither is usually prepared to be on alert and on his or her feet all day
- Eye – because Uncle Bob or Aunt Betty is someone familiar, more than likely they will shoot people they know, and conversely, people they know will call upon them to take snapshots. Thus, it is more than likely the result imagery will be narrower in focus than those from a professional photographer who is trained to see the big picture.
- Hit or Miss Quality – like the Aspiring Amateur, the Uncle Bob or Aunt Betty may get some great shots and perhaps some not so great shots, depending on his or her competency level.
- Standing out – if Uncle Bob is the “exclusive” photographer, then more than likely he will not be in any (or just a very few) of your photos — you’d have to decide if that’s what you want.
- Lack of Back-Up Equipment – same as in Aspiring Amateur
8. Old School Photographer
Description – this term applies to certain wedding photographers who shot on film, and perhaps with medium format cameras. He or she may have shot for 20-30 years developed a large base of referrals.
Pro’s of the Old School’er
- Super Niche – in today’s digital age, the Old School’er is in his own niche, and because he or she might not put any images online.
- Tons of Experience – to have shot weddings for 20-30 years means tons of experience in dealing with clients, guests and vendors of all temperament types.
Con’s of the Old School’er
- Stuck in Yesteryear – the thing that puts the old timer in the super-niche group can also be detrimental for today’s wedding clients. Does the photographer offer an online gallery? PDF proofing of the album design? Digital negatives? etc. Does this photograph communicate effectively in today’s age of “instant gratification” tools?
After going through all this information you might be a little bit confused. Hence let us say this there are two factors that make great photographs and hence photographer, and that is 1. technical perfection and 2. emotions the pictures are going to evoke (this is the artistry part). The goal of a bride should be to find a photographer who creates great photographs and who she feels would give her a great photography experience. The former is dependent on the photographers knowledge and is easily acquired, but the latter is dependent on the personality of the photographer and hence cannot be acquired easily. Hence once you find that sample pictures from the photographer is appealing to you, set up a meeting to see the person. Your main goal during this meeting should be to find out if you will be able to work comfortably with the photographer. If you find the persons personality as kind and personable then you have your photographer. We cannot stress enough about the importance of the comfort level you have with your photographer. Because no matter how competent the photographer is, if you do not find him/her easy to work with, your pictures are going to suffer.
